That evening, Lin Ran went to pick Lin Ruixue up from school. On the way home, he sensed that something was off with her mood, while Si Qing murmured something under her breath. Lin Ran only caught a few words.

“Don’t let it get to you. She just thinks you’re an easy target. Ignore her.”

“Don’t worry, Xiaoxue. If she dares say anything again, I’ll hit her.”

......

“What’s wrong?” Lin Ran asked.

“Huh?” Si Qing looked at Lin Ran in confusion.

Lin Ran glanced at Lin Ruixue. “What happened? What were you two whispering about?”

“There’s this girl in our class who keeps picking on Xiaoxue for some reason. Xiaoxue hurt her knee in a fall on Tuesday, and you come to school with her every day, so lots of people think you two are dating. Quite a few boys in our class like Xiaoxue, and this girl’s been saying all kinds of nasty things about her behind her back. Now a lot of people are calling Xiaoxue a slutty ‘green tea bitch,’ and she keeps finding ways to give Xiaoxue a hard time. Now you know, so as her big brother, you’d better do something about it. You can’t just let people bully Xiaoxue like this. The little stuff isn’t a big deal, of course, but the slander’s the real problem. It’s only been a week, and it already seems like a lot of people in class are starting to isolate her.” Si Qing explained.

Lin Ran nodded and murmured, “Mm,” without saying anything else.

He could guess what was going on. It was just jealousy, so she’d bad-mouth Xiaoxue behind her back. Girls that age didn’t think things through. One person told another, then another, until eventually everyone believed it. He’d been through this himself, so he knew exactly how it went.

“What are you going to do?” Si Qing asked cautiously.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Lin Ran replied.

Si Qing pouted. But Lin Ran would stand up for Xiaoxue, right? Yeah. He should.

Part of it was about standing up for Lin Ruixue. But Lin Ran also couldn’t stand people who smeared others behind their backs. A few careless words could ruin someone’s life. He hoped that girl had at least a little sense, or he might not be able to stop himself from hitting her. Lin Ran wasn’t the kind of guy who thought a man shouldn’t hit a woman. Man or woman, if you deserved a beating, you were getting one.

Si Qing asked Lin Ran to walk her home, but he simply pretended he hadn’t heard and ignored her. Si Qing was furious and cursed him out in every way she could think of, but when all was said and done, she went home by herself without any trouble.

Lin Ran didn’t speak to Lin Ruixue on the way home, and she didn’t know what to say either. They made the whole trip in silence.

At noon on Saturday, the teacher posted the entrance exam results in the group chat. Everyone downloaded the file and opened it. Huh? Wasn’t Wang Defa ranked first? Had they read it wrong? It was Lin Ran? Lin Ran?

Sun Ming: Holy crap, Lin Ran’s in first place? For real?

Zhao Wanyu: Lin Ran came first? Are you sure? He didn’t cheat, did he?

Su Shijie: @Lin Ran, fuck you! Didn’t you say you were just okay at exams? What the hell is this? Did you take something?

......

Lin Ran looked over the results and, honestly, he was a little shocked himself. In Class B, the best student was Wang Defa, who got around 330 across the three main subjects. Class B students ranked between seventieth and one-hundred-tenth in the grade, so that was a pretty good score. But Lin Ran had suddenly exploded onto the scene—not only did he come first in the class, he scored a staggering 409 points. That was S-class level!

Some people suspected Lin Ran of cheating, but the idea was pretty ridiculous. Who could cheat their way to a score that high? Besides, during Friday’s exam, Lin Ran had started writing as soon as he sat down, then fallen asleep the moment he finished. The teacher had watched them the entire time without nodding off. How could Lin Ran have cheated without getting caught?

Meanwhile, Lin Ran, the protagonist, never said a word in the group chat.

Su Shijie couldn’t take this ‘humiliation’ anymore and stormed straight to Lin Ran’s house. But when he got there, Lin Ran was sitting in the living room with a textbook, explaining some key points to Lin Ruixue......

Su Shijie pinched his own cheek. Was he seeing things? Lin Ran was actually tutoring Lin Ruixue?

When Su Shijie grabbed Lin Ran and demanded to know what had happened with the entrance exam, Lin Ran gave him a strange look. “Don’t you think this exam was pretty easy? It wasn’t even as hard as last semester’s final. Most of it was stuff we’d already covered and questions we’d seen before. If you’d done even a little revision, you wouldn’t be making such a big deal out of it.”

Su Shijie had noticed the exam was easy. His grades weren’t that bad, after all. But even if it was easy, wasn’t Lin Ran’s score just insane?

“I seriously wonder if you took something over the break. With 409 points, you’re going straight to Class S next week.” Su Shijie looked at Lin Ran enviously, though he was genuinely happy for him.

“It’s not that simple. I bet at least half the people in Class S got full marks. Seriously, this entrance exam was easy. For those top students in Class S, taking it must’ve been like a game.” Lin Ran said calmly.

“You really know how to act humble. You didn’t say a word, just quietly made a fortune while everyone else was looking the other way.” Su Shijie pouted.

“I told you, if you’d just revised properly, you wouldn’t be this surprised.” Lin Ran repeated himself. That was the problem with students their age: once they finished their homework over the break, they just played. Two months was plenty of time to forget most of what they’d learned in their first year of high school. For this exam, all you had to do was go over the first-year material twice and refresh your memory. The questions were pretty easy.

“Well, that works out. You should be able to transfer to Class S, unless something unexpected happens. And hey, when you get there, keep an eye on Shen Qingyuan for me. If she comes to school, let me know right away.” Su Shijie grinned.

Lin Ran didn’t feel like answering. Shen Qingyuan lived in Building Four. Su Shijie could just go to her house and see her.

Of course, Lin Ran didn’t say that. It wasn’t as if Su Shijie hadn’t tried going over there before. The first time he went to see Shen Qingyuan, her father chased him out, saying the kid looked shifty and wasn’t up to any good. Otherwise, Su Shijie wouldn’t have spent part of the summer secretly watching Building Four from nearby.

“Getting into Class S isn’t that simple. Usually, this score would be enough to transfer, but not this time,” Lin Ran said.

“I don’t care. Just remember to keep an eye on her when you get there!” Su Shijie said shamelessly. Then he went out to have some fun.

Lin Ran went back to tutoring Lin Ruixue.

Honestly, Lin Ran hadn’t expected Lin Ruixue to come to him first thing in the morning to ask for help with a problem. But he didn’t turn her down. It was a good way to pass the time.

At two that afternoon, the homeroom teacher posted this week’s homework in the group chat. The assignments depended on each student’s rank: the bottom ten had to copy all the first-year material ten times and complete nine extra test papers; ranks twenty-one to thirty had to copy it five times and complete nine test papers; ranks eleven to twenty had to copy it three times and complete six test papers; ranks four to ten had to complete six test papers; and the top three had no homework—they could read or take a break.

So Lin Ran didn’t have any homework this week.

The students who’d done badly on the exam all suspected the teacher had done it on purpose. They had only a day and a half of their break left, and now the teacher had dumped this much homework on them. Was he trying to kill them?

On Sunday morning, the teacher rearranged the classes according to the rankings. Usually, the biggest changes only affected the top and bottom few students in each class, so no one paid much attention. But this time was different. After Lin Ran’s sudden breakout, lots of people were wondering if he could skip Class A and go straight to Class S.

The results sheet confirmed what Lin Ran had said. Since this entrance exam was relatively easy, more than ten of the freakishly smart students in Class S had gotten full marks. It was terrifying. Still, Lin Ran had been incredibly lucky: he’d ranked exactly thirtieth in the grade. According to No. 5 High’s rules, students ranked first through thirtieth belonged in Class S. In other words, Lin Ran had really skipped Class A and joined Class S.

Once the results were announced, the teacher added Lin Ran to the Class S group chat. As soon as he joined, the group announcement nearly scared him out of his wits.

Teacher Cui: Students who got full marks only need to complete twelve test papers this week. Everyone else must copy the first-year material twenty times and complete twelve test papers. Class monitor, collect everything on Monday morning and leave it on my desk.

Lin Ran swallowed. What the hell? Even students who got full marks had to do twelve test papers? Was Class S really that terrifying?

Not long after Lin Ran joined the group, Teacher Cui appeared.

Teacher Cui: @Li Sisi, @Lin Ran, welcome to Class S, you two little geniuses. I hope you’ll keep pushing yourselves to improve this semester, and don’t let yourselves get kicked out of Class S.

Lin Ran: Got it!

Li Sisi: Yes, teacher!

Lin Ran: So, teacher, what homework do I have this week?

Teacher Cui: Since you both earned your way into Class S, I won’t assign you homework this week.

Lin Ran: Okay!

Lin Ran breathed a sigh of relief. No homework—that was good. He’d been afraid Teacher Cui would dump several tons of homework on them. But it was only for this week. Lin Ran had a feeling things wouldn’t be comfortable for him from now on, though he did want to see what Class S was really like.

In the Class B group chat, Lin Ran’s former classmates were also discussing his move to Class S. They were envious, sure, but most of them were just watching to see what would happen. They figured Lin Ran would get pushed out next semester. His sudden improvement had to be luck; once he got into Class S, he’d definitely be at the bottom, and he’d surely be kicked out next semester.

Some students who had former classmates in Class S said the teachers there were terrifying. If you were in Class S, you could forget about having any free time. The pressure was enormous—enough to crush you, no exaggeration.

The students kept chattering away until the homeroom teacher finally stepped in to stop them.

Homeroom teacher: It’s true that the pressure in Class S is intense, but you improve just as quickly. You’re making fun of Lin Ran now, but don’t forget you’re already at least seventy places behind him. Instead of laughing at him, you should ask yourselves why you did so badly when the exam was so easy. Lin Ran knew to review before the exam. What about you? All you know how to do is play.

Homeroom teacher: From now on, shut your mouths and get to studying and doing your homework. If anyone says one more word in this group, I’ll double their homework for the week.

The group chat fell silent at once. Doubling the homework was just too terrifying.